Mount Tom coal plant's future subject of hearing in Holyoke

Mount Tom Power Station between Route 5 and the Connecticut River in Holyoke.File photo

HOLYOKE -- About 50 people at a hearing Thursday on the future of the Mount Tom coal plant raised concerns about air quality, possible soil contamination, reuse of the site, jobs and taxes.

Such concerns make the plant important beyond Holyoke, some residents said.

"We need to all be involved in the conversation," said Jennifer Goldman, of Easthampton.

Officials on a state task force that ran the hearing said such discussion was exactly what was needed from the community about the plant in the northern part of the city on Route 5.

"We're here to hear from you," said Richard K. Sullivan, secretary of the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Sullivan led the hearing at Holyoke Heritage State Park Visitors Center with state Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, and state Rep. Aaron M. Vega, D-Holyoke.

The hearing comes as the owner of the coal-burning plant, GDF Suez Energy North America/FirstLight Power Resources, of Glastonbury, Conn., said in March it had told ISO New England the plant would be taken off line for one year in 2016. No decision has been made to close the plant, a company spokesman said in April.

The Holyoke-based ISO New England is the region's power-grid operator.

The panel that held the hearing is the Salem Harbor Plant Revitalization Task Force’s Subcommittee on Decommissioning. It is named for the Salem Harbor Power Station, which is set for conversion to a natural-gas plant. But the task force's job is write regulations for the deconstruction, remediation and redevelopment of such plants.

A bill now in committee calls for communities such as Holyoke to get $100,000 to assess such plant sites, such as how to deal with chemicals and other hazardous substances in the soil, Knapik said.

Remember amid the talk of closing the plant that 25 people work there at good wages, said Brian Kenney, business manager of Local 455, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Seventeen of the workers are union members.

"It would be very, very tough to replicate those jobs," Kenney said.

Carlos Rodriguez, of Holyoke, said if the plant is closed jobs in the deconstruction of the plant should go first to plant employees and then to Holyokers.

"We all know in Holyoke there is a high rate of unemployment," said Rodriguez, whose comments in Spanish were translated into English by Lena Entin.

Entin and Rodriguez belong to Neighbor to Neighbor, which helps low-income people have a say in public policy.

Also a concern, said Vega, Kenney and others, is the blow to the city if the plant closes and the $615,000 a year in property taxes is lost.

Others said that ending coal burning would improve air quality and that reuse of the plant's 80 acres on the Connecticut River was an opportunity such as for a beach.

"We must get the air clean for the children," said Hannah Morehouse, of Holyoke.

"I know we need tax dollars, but part of what makes a good place a good place to live is to take advantage of the resources," said Nancy Howard, of Holyoke.